Replica bench part of LR Nine project
A replica of the bus stop bench that served as a refuge of sorts for Little Rock Nine student Elizabeth Eckford after she was turned away from entering Central High School on Sept. 4, 1957, is planned for the corner of Park and 16th streets.
The National Park Service and the Central High Memory Project Student Team are working with community partners on the Elizabeth Eckford Bench Project. The project includes construction of the replica bus stop bench, the creation of a mobile app for an audio walking tour that tells the events of the first day of the desegregation effort, and a recording booth for interviews and student podcasts.
The Bench Project groundbreaking ceremony will be at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Park and 16th street intersection and will include remarks by representatives of the National Park Service and some of the partnering organizations.
The partnering groups include Bullock Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Central High School; the Central High Environmental and Spatial Technology, or EAST, program; the Little Rock School District; the city of Little Rock; the Central Arkansas Library System's Butler Center for Arkansas Studies; the Good Earth Garden Center; Friends of Central High Museum Inc.; Home Depot; Little Rock Club 99 and other Rotary International Clubs; Pam Brown Courtney and Dr. Willis Courtney; the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service; and Unity in the Community.
Eckford was one of nine black students who desegregated the all-white Central High in the 1957-58 school year. She arrived at the school by herself on Sept. 4 and was repeatedly blocked by soldiers from entering the school while an angry crowd shouted in protest of black students attending the school. Members of the crowd followed Eckford to the corner bus stop. The photos of a stoic Eckford walking to the bench while protesters appear to be shouting at her from behind are considered to be among the most iconic in U.S. civil-rights history.
District gets waiver on bat-removal days
The Arkansas Board of Education has approved a three-day waiver of the minimum 178-day school year requirement for the Blevins School District, which in March had to deal with a large bat colony residing in an elementary physical education space.
Superintendent Billy Lee told the state board that the colony was flushed out of the building and entry points were blocked, but that the bats then took up residence in trees and tops of buildings across the campus. That wasn't a problem until one bat hit a window and landed on the ground while kids were transitioning from building to building during lunch. One student picked up the animal, and two other students touched it before it was disposed of.
Because that particular bat was not tested for rabies, the three students had to receive preventive treatment, the superintendent said. At that point, social media accounts of the bat issue intensified, which caused the superintendent to close school for three days before spring break to solve the problem.
"This was something out of our control," Lee said in asking for and receiving the waiver.
Handwriting contest recognizes LR pupil
Sophie Howell, a fifth-grader at Little Rock's Forest Park Elementary School, was a 2018 national grade-level semifinalist in a handwriting competition.
She was one of 18 students to be honored out of more than 250,000 entries in the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest, which is now in its 27th year for children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
All students had to write the sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" because it contains every letter of the alphabet. Judges select winners based on shape, size, spacing and slant.
Nine students were selected to be grand national grade-level champions and nine others were semifinalists.
Metro on 05/13/2018